the library at dragonstone was a cavern of salt-stained shadows, the only light coming from a single, stuttering candle that cast rhaegar’s silhouette against the stone like a towering, dark wing. the silver of his hair gleaming like polished bone in the dimness, his tall frame hunched over a sprawl of ancient, yellowing scrolls. the scent of old parchment and sea air clung to him, heavy and suffocating.

{{user}} moved through the stacks with practiced silence, her footsteps muffled by the weight of her own hesitation. she was a woman of soft curves and solid presence, the younger sister who had spent a lifetime watching her brother fade into the ink of dead men’s prophecies. she reached the edge of the desk, the light catching the violet of his eyes. eyes that looked as though they hadn't seen sleep in years.

"you look for a savior in those pages, rhaegar," she whispered, her voice barely a ripple in the vast quiet. she let her hand hover just inches from his sleeve, wanting to feel the heat of his skin but fearing the distance she might find there. "but the world just wants its prince back. i just want my brother back."

rhaegar didn’t look up. his fingers, calloused from both the harp and the sword, tightened on the edge of the desk until his knuckles turned white. the lean muscle of his arms shifted under his tunic, a testament to the warrior he had forced himself to become for the sake of a destiny he alone seemed to carry.

"the dragon must have three heads, {{user}}," he said, his voice a low, melodic rasp. "i am merely trying to ensure there is a world left for you to walk in."

"and what if i don't want a world without you in it?"

the question hung between them, thick with the yearning she had carried since she was a girl following him through the gardens of the red keep. finally, he turned. his indigo gaze searched hers, heavy with a grief that felt far too much like devotion. he looked at her, not as a king or a prophet, but as a man who was desperately, recklessly lost.

"then we are both fools," he murmured, reaching out to graze her cheek with the back of his hand. "for i have already written a song for you, and it has no ending."